Images: Supreme Court Weighs in on Whales and Sonar

In 2000, 17 whales stranded on beaches in the
Bahamas following U.S. Navy sonar exercises. Beaked whales appear to be
especially sensitive to sonar. Hypothesized causes for the strandings
include stress,
disorientation, hearing loss, or disruption of foraging. The U.S. Navy
has acknowledged that sonar may cause beaked whales to strand
and is funding research to determine how sonar affects these whales.
(Photo by Nan Hauser, The Center for Cetacean Research & Conservation)

Marine biologist Darlene Ketten researches the adaptations of
aquatic vertebrates for hearing under water. She uses forensic
techniques, biomedical
images generated from CT (computerized tomography) scans, and
biophysical models of
hearing in humans and marine mammals. She is the director of the
Computer Scanning and Imaging facility at Woods Hole Oceanograhic
Institution.
(photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

WHOI biologist Peter Tyack studies social behavior and acoustic
communication in whales and dolphins, and how human-caused noise
affects them. He has helped develop non-invasive tags to record the
behavior and sound environment of whales under water and is the
director of the WHOI Marine Mammal Center.
(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Digital tags recently developed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
attach non-invasively to whales, then
release after a few hours. After this beaked whale was tagged, the
device recorded data about the animal's behavior and
information about the surrounding ocean environment. The
tags have increased scientists’ ability to learn how whales respond to
sonar. The research was conducted under a permit issued by the Bahamas
Department of Resources and under permit # 981-1707 issued by the
National Marine Fisheries Service under the authority of the Marine
Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
(Photo by Ari Friedlaender, Duke University)

A rarely seen Cuvier's beaked whale breaches off the island of El
Hierro in the Canary Islands. In 2005, scientists and engineers from WHOI, University of La
Laguna (Canary Islands) and University of Aarhus (Denmark) studied this population of whales to learn about
their underwater behavior and how they reacted to sonar testing, which may
make them vulnerable to stranding. See Pilot Whales—the Cheetahs of the Deep.
(Photo by Natacha Aguilar, University of La Laguna, taken under permit from the Canary Islands Government)